Durable goods orders plunge, Economic growth sluggish, 1.3 percent annual growth, Longest 8 plus percent unemployment rate on record, Record labor force participation rate

“Guilford (Large NC County) appears on it’s way to a third consecutive year with annual jobless rates in double digits. Economists say that likely hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.”…Greensboro News Record December 2, 2011

“With a 63.7% labor force participation, “conditions in the labor market are considerably worse than indicated” in July’s report”…economist Joshua Shapiro, WSJ August 3, 2012

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed

–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

A recent survey indicated that 15 % of Democrats believe that the economy is bad. Perhaps they selected a sample of mostly young and uneducated folks.

I just asked a classicly liberal older gentleman about his impression of the economy and he gave me an honest answer. He described it with emphasis as extremely bad.

Economic growth figures are frightening, the stated unemployment rate is the worst on record for months above 8 percent and the Labor Force Participation Rate has hit record lows. That is, the only reason that the unemployment rate is 8.1 percent instead of 11.1 percent or higher is because so many people have left the labor force.

From Bloomberg September 27, 2012.

“Plunge in Goods Orders May Restrain U.S. Expansion: Economy”

“Demand for U.S. durable goods other than transportation equipment unexpectedly dropped in August for a third consecutive month, signaling that slowdowns in business investment and exports will restrain the economic expansion.

Orders for goods meant to last at least three years, excluding volatile demand for airplanes and automobiles, fell 1.6 percent last month after decreasing 1.3 percent in July, the Commerce Department reported today in Washington. Total bookingsplunged 13.2 percent, the most since January 2009, as demand for civilian aircraft collapsed.

“The corporate sector is getting very nervous from a combination of worries about Europe, worries about the fiscal cliff and a general lack of confidence in the recovery,” saidEthan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America Corp. in New York, whose estimate for the drop in ex- transportation orders was the closest of economists surveyed.”

“The median forecast of 53 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected a 0.2 percent gain in ex-transportation goods orders. The Commerce Department revised July data down from a previously reported 0.6 percent decrease.

The decline in total orders was more than twice as large as the 5 percent drop projected by the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey.

The world’s largest economy expanded at a 1.3 percent annual pace in the second quarter after growing at a 2 percent rate from January through March, other figures from the Commerce Department showed today. The revision, the third estimate for the quarter, compared with a previously reported 1.7 percent gain.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-27/orders-for-u-s-capital-goods-signal-business-spending-slowdown.html

I spoke to a young man a few days ago. He is employed in IT. He is supporting Obama and the Democrats and is obviously brainwashed. I do not exaggerate. Just as the folks in Nazi Germany and “1984” were constantly bombarded with the big lies, the young and ignorant are in this country.

He believed that the economy was better and that Obama had created jobs. I reminded him that the Democrats took control of both houses in January 2007 and that the unemployment rate where we stood is 10.2 percent. He did not know that. I explained that we were still in the worst economy since the great depression.

We still have work to do.